Meet Yale Medicine Urologic Surgeon Joshua Sterling, MD, MSc

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Joshua Sterling, MD, is a reconstructive urologist who is trained in a variety of techniques and approaches for treating urinary problems. “The goal of a reconstructive urologist is to restore quality of life for patients,” he says. “The patients I focus on are those with urinary complications who are currently managed with tubes in their bladders or kidneys to drain their urine and work to restore normal voiding.” Patients will often have multiple treatment options, depending on the origin of their problem. The treatments are as simple as a dietary change or other lifestyle modification, or as complex as minimally invasive, robotic, or open surgery. Each of those has its own pros and cons, Dr. Sterling says, and a lot of time is spent educating patients on both their condition and treatment options. For that reason, it’s important for doctors and patients to treat their relationship as a partnership, he adds, and make sure everyone involved has a full understanding of the diagnosis and the treatments. Dr. Sterling studied biomedical engineering in college. “It's this background that led me to reconstructive urology,” he says. “There is a problem and a desired solution, but no set path to get there. Every patient also has a unique set of circumstances and goals that go with their urologic issues. All of that needs to be taken into account when designing each individualized treatment plan.” In addition to caring for patients, Dr. Sterling is a researcher with interests in the etiology of urologic stricture disease, buccal mucosa grafting (taking tissue from another part of the body to repair a problem in the urethra), and health care disparities in the transgender population.